Book Reviews i!i{ i The InformationHighwayShould be Paved with the Public Good... Leslie Regan Shade Books reviewed in this essay: Public Access to the Internet. Edited by Brian Kahin and James Keller. Cambridge, MA; MIT Press, 1995. v-viii, 390 p. ISBN 0262-61118-X. Civilizing Cyberspace:Poli~, Power, and the Intimation Superhighway. Steven E. Miller. NY: ACM Press/Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1996. v-xvii,413 p. ISBN 0-201-84760-4. New Community Networks: Wired tir Change. Douglas Schuler. N.Y: ACM Press/Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1996. ix-xv, 528 p. ISBN 0-201-59553-2. A s the debates continue about the trajectory of national in formation infrastructures, it has become clear that the task of ensuring that public interest needs are expressed and met will be an ongoing struggle. With the advent and proliferation of converging communications technologies, what might be called the public in our "information society age" has become more elusive and complex. Deregulation in the telecommunications industry has brought about an ambiguous relationship between public and private interests: privatized and commercial interests versus governmental regulation and control. As well, how the needs of public interest groups (libraries, educational and community groups, and social change groups) can be met is a particular challenge. For instance, in North America, explorations
/lp/association-for-computing-machinery/book-reviews-the-information-highway-should-be-paved-with-the-public-xuMrNGKUMo